History
Historical-Timeline-of-Aurelia_WEB.jpg|Historical Timeline of Aurelia|link=http://www.theatrics.com/aurelia/site/image/video/s9hr In The Beginning Aurelia. Few born within these walls ever leave. Those who do, never return. The plains surrounding this mountain-bound city were once a paradise of unmatched beauty, light and life. The fables say a pure cosmic energy called Shakna burned on the mountaintop in the shape of fiery tree. Its roots ran to the center of the earth, a nerve ganglion of life at the core of the continent. Its fiery leaves sustained a rich garden landscape and a teeming array of mythic creatures. Idyllic human villages dotted the plain while one wandering tribe, known as The Chosen, were tasked with caring for the Tree of Shakna and guarding its incredible powers. Then, a thousand years ago, treason broke the ranks of The Chosen. A faction, led by the mysterious, beguiling Navaris, tried to seize the power of the Tree for themselves. In response, the remaining Chosen uprooted the tree and spirited it away to the distant mountains to protect its power from human greed. The Turning Point In the aftermath, permanent Darkness fell over Aurelia. The land decayed into a jungle of poisonous thorns. The beautiful creatures mutated into monsters prowling for blood. Acid rain poured from the skies. To escape certain death, the remaining human inhabitants fled for the safety of the now-bare mountain. There, they built a city that would sustain itself for generations to come. Rather than spreading out, their city spread up, rising layer upon layer around the mountain. They called it Aurelia after their lost home. Inside this tower-fortress, three races flourished: humans; the mole-like, subterranean kiega; and the machine-enhanced humanoid renn. Once the first generation of inhabitants died off, the truth of the old paradise faded slowly into myth. Only the truth of the City remained. The City Rises For a millennium, Aurelians survived the darkness by their own ingenuity. Scientists emerged as the ruling class, aligning into 24 all-powerful First Families who bound the city to their brilliance. Inventors were right behind the scientists in rank. Below, workers fell into a series of ranks--from engineers, merchant and tradesmen to metal workers and boiler-keepers, all the way down to the street sweepers and thieves. In this stratified society, change came quickly. Early cave dwellings quickly gave way to a complex hive of brick and mortar, iron and stone. Mines soon penetrated the mountain core, offering a steady supply of garemite for the city’s boilers. Up and down the city, factories, markets, homes, and schools bustled with the power of steam and the flicker of gaslight. A well-armed and well-trained public watch quelled any flicker of unrest that threatened the city's wellbeing. The Decline Begins It seemed for a time that this new man-made paradise would stand forever. But then, a series of small disasters added up to a catastrophe, leaving the city vulnerable. It all started with dissent among the ruling scientific class, or First Families. Each family sent a representative to sit on a ruling High Council, of whom the senior-most member was called "King." For at least a century, the kings bore the name of Daregur, a family of renowned physicists. But other First Families wanted power--and they mean to have it. Trust and cooperation disintegrated into distrust and treason. To make matters worse, Aurelia's geologists reported a disastrous miscalculation made by their ancestors. For centuries, they had believed the mountain held an almost inexhaustible supply of garemite. But recently, the most productive deposits have begun to run out, and no new energy supply had been found to take its place. The Big Loss By this time, the scheming Council had lost all ability to work together to solve its newly-arisen energy crisis. While panic rose in the streets, the Council busied itself with tricking young King Jude Daregur into a terrible crime, then banishing him out the gate, into the Wasteland. When they did, they might have sent their most brilliant physicist mind, and their soon-to-be energy solutions, out the gate with him. No one is really sure, but the regrets linger. Since King Jude's banishment, unrest has grown beyond the Public Watch's control. In the factories, the terrified poor whisper of uprising. In the narrow streets, lawlessness grows bolder. In the midst of all this chaos one nobleman, Lord Septimus Pennywalter, has grown irate with the High Council's antics and has decided to take the future to the people. He believes that by connecting with each other via the newfangledcamera obscurata, or moving pictures, can Aurelia hope to find its answers. So Lord Pennywalter calls upon all citizens to record their daily lives—in hopes that through their own stories, they themselves might find unlock their future. Your Turn This is your world. If you succeed in solving the crisis, you may usher in a paradise almost like the one the fables speak of. If you fail, you will find your entire civilization going the way of King Jude: out into a Wasteland from which there is escape.